New David Ball sculpture to be installed on river walkway
Published on 15 July 2019
Goulburn’s popular river walkway will be home to a newly commissioned sculpture by the end of this week. Shaped out of corten steel, David Ball’s ‘Fracture’ is a large scale work that was created in response to the river walkway and the natural environment it will be surrounded by. Over four metres in height, the monumental work is one of a series the artist has presented, one of which won the 2017 Sculpture by the Sea major prize.
‘Fracture’ is the first work of the artists ever to be commissioned for public display in this region.
Ball, who lives and works in the Southern Highlands, said: “It is a great honour to have been asked to make a sculpture for my region and for it to be located beside one of my favourite rivers.
“I’d like to think that the spiralled segmented forms, returning on itself relates well to the cyclic nature of the river.”
Gina Mobayed, Director of the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, said: ‘Commissioning David to create the inaugural sculpture at the Walking Track adds a new rigour to our collection of public art – he is one of our regions most celebrated artists. I thank David for his care and integrity in making ‘Fracture’ for Goulburn and hope everyone enjoys the experience of walking in and around this large scale work.’
The work will be installed between Gibson and Prince Streets by Friday 19th July.
Artist’s statement: ‘Fracture'
Corten steel, 420cm high x 450cm wide x 120cm deep
David’ Ball’s sculpture plays with shapes and themes found in nature to express the relationship the landscape has to the human condition. Fracture incorporates a seemingly simplistic exterior with a more complex inner circular form. The rhythmic but disrupted interior has a strong geologically inspired architecture. The interior’s haphazard or chaotic-seeming construction mimics patterns found in nature such as a construction of rocks or a river bed. A constant theme of David’s work is the perfection of nature, expressed through pure imbalance, a concept humanity struggles with.
Fracture is one of a series of monumental works by David Ball, the second of which won the 2017 Sculpture by the Sea major prize. David’s work is of a universal nature, relating to all that surrounds it. It has no definitive narrative. Its interpretation is open to the viewer. The simple but bold abstract forms give the onlooker easy access and lures them in to participate with the work. There’s a sense of wonder that creates a gravity and pulls people in to interact, to walk through, under, around and to look skyward. They are of nature from the molecular to the cosmological, the geological to the anthropological.